South Dakota Death Certificates

Ordering South Dakota Death Certificates Online

Order Death Certificates Here

General Information on Ordering South Dakota Death Certificates

The law implementing the South Dakota Vital Records System took effect in July 1905. This system contains birth, death, fetal death, marriage, divorce/annulment and burial records. The Vital Records System, led by the Department of Health, has 64 local Registers of Deeds, which have helped to build and maintain the system. In general, the State and County offices each hold a set of standard birth, death and marriage records. In some instances however, County offices have records prior to the creation of the Vital Records System.

As a standard, the State and County offices have records of death that occurred after 1905. It is standard for each county to have the records of deaths that occurred in their county while the Department of Health has the original records of all events that occurred in the State after 1905. For records prior to 1905, refer to the South Dakota State Archives.

A certified copy of any death certificate can be ordered from the State Vital Records Office or from the county where the death occurred. If you are unsure of which county the death occurred, you should order the record from the state.

Information for Genealogists

For assistance with your family history research, please do not contact the State of South Dakota. Instead please refer to the following websites for help:

• South Dakota Birth, Marriage and Death Records - online databases of primary records.

• South Dakota Adoption Registry - for help with locating adoptees and birth families from South Dakota.

• South Dakota Obituaries - find obituaries from South Dakota newspapers.

• Social Security Death Index - National database of deaths dating back to the 1940's.